Violent crime 'four times higher' than reported

Home Secretary Dav id Blunkett was warned today in a report on firearms that violent crime may be four times higher than official estimates.

Figures due out tomorrow will show the number of shootings, stabbings and assaults in England and Wales rose to 1.1 million last year.

But experts in today's report claim that as many as three million violent crimes went unreported last year, meaning the real toll could be more than fourmillion.

Its author, Professor Jonathan Shepherd, said there was a danger of shootings in some British cities reaching levels similar to the United States. "Only about a quarter or a third of all violent offences appear in official police records," the report said.

Professor Shepherd, who heads the Violence and Society Research Group at Cardiff University, said many violent offences, particularly those connected with shootings and drug crimes, went unreported.

He added: "Substantial numbers of violent offences, even the majority in some locations like nightclubs, are not reported. In drug-related shootings it may not be seen as a priority on the part of anyone involved for the offence to be reported." Research indicates that the proportion of shootings reported to police could be even lower.

The British report looked at the situation in America, where the number of shootings reported to the police compared with those treated in hospital was one in five.

"There is no reason to think the proportion is dissimilar in cities in Britain," he said.

The findings back Conservative claims that the Government has failed to recognise the scale of the problem.

The rise in violent crime has continued to embarrass ministers at a time when rates for other crimes such as burglary and car theft have continued to fall. The warning over violence came as the Association of Police Authorities warned that police forces in England and Wales face a ?350 million funding shortfall.

The association's chairman, Baroness Henig, said the forces needed a 5.7 per cent increase but might only receive three per cent for 2005-2006.

Home Office minister Hazel Blears said they would be looking at the figures before a decision was made. She added: "I'm not going to say how much they are going to get but we are proceeding in drawing up the settlement."